1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to outdoor or indoor stands for supporting decorative trees, such as Christmas trees, and, more particularly, to structural improvement in such tree support stands for inserting a tree trunk into a cylindrical support vessel medially and orthogonally mounted on the top surface of a base plate and double holding lower and upper portions of the tree trunk by first and second abutment portions, thus to prevent possible sway of the tree such as due to outside impact, to firmly support the tree, readily support any thickness of tree trunk and to achieve easiness to handle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, there have been proposed and used support stands for supporting outdoor or indoor decorative trees such as Christmas trees. The known tree support stands are classified into single holding type stands and double holding type stands. In a single holding type tree support stand, the decorative tree is held or supported merely at its trunk bottom. In a double holding type tree support stand, the decorative tree is intended to be held or supported not only at the upper portion of the tree trunk but also at the bottom of the tree trunk.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,901 discloses a double holding type tree support stand. In this tree support stand, a spike is provided in the bottom of a tree trunk receiving vessel to project upwardly from the vessel bottom and into a decorative tree trunk that is inserted into the vessel. In order to additionally hold the upper portion of the trunk of the decorative tree, a partial collar is fixed to and extends transversely of the inwardly extending portion of an arm of a support member, which support member in turn is pivotally connected to an extension of a generally Y-shaped base. This Y-shaped base is adapted for supporting the tree trunk receiving vessel thereon. However, this stand has a problem in that the stand is structurally unstable since the tree trunk receiving vessel is merely supported on the Y-shaped base. The spike of the vessel bottom projects into the tree trunk that is inserted into the vessel, so that the stand exhibits barely weak structural force for supporting the decorative tree. Another problem of the above tree support stand is resided in that each support member, which is pivotally connected to the extension of the Y-shaped base and comprises a leg portion and the arm, is such thin that the tree support stand is apt to fall even by a weak outside impact.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,772 discloses another tree support stand of the double holding type. This tree support stand, however, has a problem in that this stand somewhat troubles a user since the tree to be supported by the stand should be received in an inner portion and, thereafter, received in a base portion together with the inner portion, which inner portion is securable in the base portion by a securing assembly. A clamp portion should be adjusted in accordance with thickness of tree, however, such adjustment of the clamp portion is very difficult. Furthermore, the tree support stand may not stand a big tree due to its structural weakness. Another problem of the above tree support stand is resided in that the base portion, comprising a frusto-conical sidewall portion, an upper rim and a bottom wall, and a plurality of securing arms of the securing assembly should be separately produced with high cost. Such separate production of the base portion and the securing arms also complicates the production process of the stand.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,436,272, 5,209,450 and 4,825,586 disclose single holding type tree support stands respectively. However, each of those tree support stands merely supports the bottom of the tree trunk, so that each tree support stand can not firmly support the tree on its base when the tree is thick, tall and/or decorated with ornaments.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,159,780 discloses a tree support stand that includes a flexible circular collar joined to a plurality of two piece adjustable elongated support members. The flexible circular collar is axially provided with a plurality of snap protrusions at one end thereof and with a plurality of snap holes at the other end thereof. When supporting a tree, the diameter of the flexible circular collar should be adjusted in accordance with thickness of the tree by moving the snap protrusions with respect to the snap holes, so that the tree trunk may be tightly supported. However, this tree support stand has a problem in that the engagement of the snap protrusions with their snap holes may be loosened because of long time use of the stand and, as a result, the protrusions may be easily suddenly separated from their snap holes. Furthermore, the snap protrusions should be forcibly inserted into associated snap holes one by one and this causes considerable inconvenience in the use of the stand.
As described above, the known tree support stands of the single holding type or of the double holding type, while intending to firmly support decorative trees, nevertheless have problems. That is, each of the known single holding type support stands is not suitable for used with either tall or thick tree, thus to be scarcely used. Each of the known double holding type support stands not only troubles the user handling the stand but also has an integrated structure which may cause the stand to be produced through a complicated process with high cost.